The ordeal is over, and the reign of Team Fokowie in the white BGT is at
an end. They did not return from the rally, but there was a garbled
message on the MG hotline, something to the effect that they'd see us
next time, what ever that means.There was a mixed field of competitors, 9
entries, Four B's three A's, a Magnette (which Barney insists should
count as an A) carrying David Darby and his wife and son Seth, and there
was the Boomer Brothers Team in the Midget.
The good news is, the Boomer Brothers managed not to break Mr Bill 3 this
time. The bad news is, they broke the navigator. We found them at dusk,
at the side of the road in the Ozarks. Something terrible was happening
on the far side of the car, which we think was attributable to the roller
coaster roads they had been negotiating for the past few hours. They
declined our offer of assistance, and we were quickly on our way.
Happily they completed the rally about 6:15 am, but checked in and out
and left promptly for home before we could get a full report.
There was one casualty in the rally, a MGA coupe that hit a dear (4
legged variety) and suffered minor damage to the right front wing and
bumper. They did otherwise finish the rally on time and in good form and
humor.
The Magnet did not finish the rally, last report being a phone call
(about 8:30 AM) declaring that they had stopped for breakfast, were
behind schedule, and were dropping out because they could not reach the
finish by the deadline. Three other cars also did not finish the rally,
a red MGA and a maroon BGT (no reports from either), and a rubber bumper
B. The report from the RBB was one of frustration over early
time and tracking problems and failure to find the first checkpoint. Too
bad they gave up the rally,because no one else found it either, because
it didn't exist. There was an erroneously specified junction of two
routes that were never closer than 10 miles apart.
So that left only four finishers out of nine starters, two A's, one B,
and one Midget. Yeah for the A's! This rally must have been way tougher
than we had anticipated. And the winner is, the MGA with an attitude,
with total accumulated mileage of 965 miles scratch (before ODO
correction), in a time of 21 hours and 20 minutes, including several pit
stops and a casual breakfast break.
There were a few specific items that saved our souls during this ordeal.
First, we didn't bite on the one checkpoint error, and did no
backtracking in search of the fictitious location, as most of the others
did. Second, for the last checkpoint we were traveling northbound with a
location reference as 6 miles south of a major intersection. Rather than
backtrack 6 miles (adding 12 miles to the total distance) we were
recording all landmark references and their mileage locations for several
miles in advance of the specified intersection, and upon arrival there
simple subtracted 6 miles to determine the location of the correct
landmark location. Otherwise the navigator simply plotted a brilliant
course using minimum mileage roads with great artistry and skill, while
the driver did his best not to get lost.
And after collecting our awards, the ordeal was still not over, as we had
a tight schedule to get to our first autocross for the year, here in St
Louis. Oh, we didn't mention the tailer with the race tires? Maybe
another memo tomorrow night, after we get a little sleep.
Regards and safety faster,
Barney Gaylord and Phil Vanner,
1958 MGA with an attitude
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